Chapter 86 - Daddy Dominant's Good Girl

When my mom got back from the hospital, I tearfully told her what happened while we packed our things. She didn’t need any more stress. She wouldn’t talk to me about Bethany or my father, and that told me just how upset she really was.

I was trying to put on a brave face for Ken because I didn’t want him to worry.

Ellis called for a car to come pick us up. I rode in the back with Ken.

“Mommy, are we homeless?” he asked, tugging at my sleeve.

“Um…” I caught Ellis’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

“I don’t want to be homeless. I don’t want to live in a box and give away all my toys,” he whined.

“It won’t come to that,” I assured. I hugged him against me and held Ellis’s eyes.

He’d promised that my family wouldn’t suffer and I believed him. But we didn’t exactly own our own place anymore. Staying with Ellis wasn’t the same as having a home of our own.

“I promise, Ken, you won’t have to get rid of any of your toys,” Ellis promised.

We pulled up in front of the familiar Peterson mansion. I hadn’t seen it in years and it still looked as immaculate as I remembered it. My last memory of being there was when I’d run out after seeing Ellis with Claire.

I knew now that I had been wrong about their relationship. Had I been wrong about Nancy too? I shook my head and kissed Ken on the top of his.

“We’re here,” I said.

A Butler came down the front walk and started unloading our luggage. A maid went up to my mother and started talking to her about the sleeping arrangements.

Ellis helped Ken out of the car and held his hand as he walked beside me to the mansion front door.

“Olivia, the mansion is your home for now. I want you, your mother, and Ken to get comfortable here. You aren’t guests, okay, you’re family,” Ellis told me in a deep, firm voice.

“We won’t be here long. Just until my mother and I can figure out how much Bethany has damaged our assets. We should be able to get a new place quickly enough,” I assured.

“There’s no rush. The place is big enough for all of us and I’m looking forward to some quality time with you and Ken. And your mother, of course.” Ellis glanced at me sideways and grinned.

My stomach lurched and I swallowed hart.

“I want to spend time with you, too,” Ken added giddily.

“Thank you. I really appreciate this,” I said, smiling shyly.

Ellis smirked. “As for what Bethany took from you, I’ve already got my people working on it.”

“Your people?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.

“I have no intention of letting her get away with this atrocity. She is clearly taking advantage of your father while he is sick.”

I hadn’t given it much thought but Ellis was probably onto something. Bethany was good at manipulating people.

“You don’t have to get involved,” I argued, shaking my head.

“I do. Bethany is going after the Richardson business. That will directly impact my business. Isn’t that reason enough?” he countered.

“Is there another reason?” I pressed. I knew Ellis was helping us out of more than just a business interest but I didn’t think he’d give me a straight answer.

Before Ellis could answer, Ken spoke up. “Wow, this place is so big!” he remarked as we walked into the entryway. His eyes widened brightly and he stamped his feet like he was ready to run around.

I glanced around briefly, my head too clogged up with heavy thoughts to pay attention to the scenery. I’d seen it all before and I didn’t care to try and figure out what had changed. I couldn’t wrap my mind around why my father was helping Bethany.

“I could live here forever. It is much better than our old home,” Ken said. He pulled away from Ellis and started running around.

“I’ll let you get settled,” Ellis said. He nodded to me and headed off toward his office.

“Come with me Miss Richardson, I’ll show you where you’re staying,” a maid said, coming up beside me. She curtsied and took my bag.

My mom got Ken and the three of us followed the maid through the halls. The butler had found a trolly cart and was wheeling the rest of our luggage along behind us, one of the wheels squeaking and echoing through the big, empty halls.

I glanced at my mom several times but her face gave nothing away. I could tell she had been crying, probably when she’d packed her things in her own room. Her makeup had been touched up but I could still see the puffyness under her eyes.

“We’ve set up adjacent rooms for Mrs. Richardson and young Master Ken,” the maid explained, stopping in front of two closed door.

I winced when she called my son “young master.” It was a formal title but it made me feel like they were already referring to Ken as the heir to the Peterson estate.

“I love this room,” Ken said, pushing past the maid and running into the room that had been assigned to him. I noticed there were tons of new toys in the room. Ken jumped up on the bed and started jumping up and down.

“Mrs. Richardson, right over here,” the maid said. She opened the room for my mother.

Silently, my mother grabbe dher suitcase off the trolly and went into her room. She shut the door and a few minutes later, I heard her sniffles. She wanted to be alone but that didn’t stop me from wanting to comfort her.

“Ken, stop jumping on the bed. You’ll break it!” I snapped when he jumped up and landed heavily on his rear end, making the whole floor shake.

“Sorry, Mommy,” he muttered. He slid off the bed and started examining his new toys.

“I’ll send someone to unpack his things,” the maid said as the butler unloaded Ken’s luggage at the door of his room.

“Where is my room?” I asked, remembering how the maid had only told us that my mother and Ken were staying in these rooms.

“Madame, you’ll be staying with Master Peterson in the master suite,” the maid said, matter of factly.

I opened my mouth to argue, putting my hands on my hips. The maid just smiled warmly.

Ellis was being a gentleman and letting us stay in his home. He was doing us a big favor and if I argued with the maid it would just cause a disturbance.

I closed my mouth and bowed my head. It was better to go with the flow in this situation… at least, that’s what I kept telling myself. My stomach fluttered and I put a hand over it to settle it. I’d be staying alone in a bedroom with Ellis. We’d be closer than we had been in a long time and have a lot of privacy.

I knew that’s what he wanted. Did I want that too?

“Alright, I’ll stay in his suite,” I muttered, keeping my head bowed.

The maid and the butler took off toward Ellis’s bedroom. I didn’t follow them right away. There was something else I wanted to see before I got comfortable under Ellis’s roof.

I went to Nancy’s bedroom. Before, the door had always been shut but now it was left open. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, bracing myself for what I was going to see.

When I stepped into the room, I found that it was completely empty.

Everything was gone.

Nancy’s piano, her clothing, the vanity and her jewelry. Her portrait was gone, too. The walls had been repainted and I noticed the carpet was different.

There was no new furniture in the room and nothing on the walls. I wondered if Ellis had had the room dismantled just because we were coming to stay here.

I touched one of the walls. The paint was dry and it didn’t have that nasty, new paint smell. He had to have worked on the room a while ago. Maybe before I even came back to the city.

“I sent her things back to her family,” Ellis’s voice rumbled behind me.

I started and clutched my chest. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

Ellis smirked as he came up beside me. “My apologies.”

“Don’t sneak up on my like that. Stamp your feet or hum or something,” I chastised. “Why is the room still empty?”

“My focus has been elsewhere. I didn’t have the time to put into decorating the room as it needed to be,” he said.

“And her things are just… gone? That beautiful piano?” I asked. I walked over to where the piano had been.

“Her family was happy to have her things back. I packed her things and all my memories of her up and sent them away. She’s no longer a part of my past,” Ellis said, walking over to me.

“You don’t need to explain anything to me.” I smiled lightly at him.

“I should have explained them to you years ago,” he muttered, casting his eyes down.

“Ellis, it really isn’t any of my business,” I said. I tried to walk away from him but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me to face him.

“It is your business, Olivia. Everything I do, everything I’ve done is your business. Like it or not, we are a family through Ken. That means a lot to me and I shouldn’t have taken it for granted before you left,” he said, his voice urgent and firm.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” I muttered sarcastically.

“It isn’t hindsight. Things between us would be very different if I hadn’t kept you at a distance. I knew what I was doing could push you away but I did it anyway because I couldn’t accept that I needed to open up to you,” he explained.

Slowly, I pulled my wrist from his grasp. “I appreciate your explanation. I’m afraid it might be five years too late.”

Ellis sighed, visibly upset. He straightened himself, fixed his suit coat, and nodded at me stiffly.

“Well, I’m not above grovelling if I have to,” he said, smirking through his cool exterior.

Ellis left me alone in the empty bedroom. I stared after him. What had just happened?

I looked around Nancy’s old bedroom one last time. I’d had questions, wondering when he’d decided to pack Nancy away. When he came in and started explaining things, I hadn’t been able to ask them.

Did they even matter now? I knew that I’d overreacted about Claire and it would have been better to just confront Ellis back then. The thing with Nancy was real, though.

That wasn’t something I could just turn my back on.